THOMAS' ANIMAL FRIENDS
Davey Moore
Directed by
Ian Cherry
Produced by
Tracy Blagdon (Jam Filled)
Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)
Plot
Air Date
SERIES OVERALL
Before I'll give my overall thoughts, I want to say this first, now that the newest season is over, Thomas & Friends' future is now unpredictable at this point since there is a hiatus placed onto the show. SiF had said that there's no S25 in production at the moment, those last three words are important to read, since S24's production had ended in September 2019 and no new season hadn't been greenlit yet. But unlike some people who are spreading misinformation about it being 'cancelled', there's no word on that actually happening, I mean we don't have any official word, yet, from Mattel or from Ian McCue. There have been confirmation about a new book being published by Random House for St.Patricks Day as well as a heritage railroad in the US confirming that they will be holding 'Day Out With Thomas' event in 2021, since this year's Thomas events around the world (excluding Japan and maybe the UK as of July 2020) would've been likely cancelled due to COVID-19. Plus we see Mattel investing into a new approach towards the Thomas toys by them streamlining the products and simplifying it as well and a new marketing team had being placed into the Thomas brand last year as well, plus we are getting three new YouTube short series like those 'Thomas' Birthday Wishes' videos for the 75th anniversary, look those shorts are strange but it's better than having Thomas gone for good whether that is for better or worse, and that Jam Filled had said back in December 2019 that Mattel are looking for a new animation studio, yeah that must've been an interm saying this but I doubt that he/she would just go off from assuming that the show will go on. So I don't see an end in site for the little blue engine and his friends. What would the future be? Well I can't predict anything, I wish I have a magic ball and forsee the future but in reality it's more of a wait and see unlike some who are writing it off as done just because it's not like S20.
However if Mattel decides to sell Thomas to another company, due to low toy sales from 2017, I'm not expecting the likes of Disney to be involved since Disney hadn't been interested in purchasing Thomas when it was being sold in 2012 and that some fans have the idea that Thomas might get the Marvel/Star Wars treatment because of it being a classic franchise or because Walt Disney loved trains, which lets be honest is not a really good excuse IMO since you don't see Disney buying up anything media related that involves trains, I don't see 'The Little Engine That Could' from 1991 or 2011 being on Disney+. To me I see Disney treating Thomas like another pre-school show and it'll be regulated to the Disney Junior channel and the Disney+ streaming service and it's clearly not fair to people who don't have any of those and either rely on DVDs or the internet and the idea of Thomas getting the Marvel/Star Wars treatment is just laughable considering how different they are compare to Thomas. One person said to me that it should get the Winnie the Pooh treatment, which is something problematic to me. Pooh bear had gone through many reboots over the years from the short films in the 1960's, to the 1983 Disney Channel show, to the 1988 - 1991 Saturday morning cartoon, to the 2001 'Book of Pooh' etc.
Plus I have this fear that Disney might dump the UK voice cast in favour of the US cast for whatever reason, kind of like what they did with Pooh Bear over the years which erased its UK roots, I never knew Pooh Bear was British until later on in life.
Plus Disney never uses Pooh bear for anything else outside of movies and TV. We have a ride at the parks, both in the US and one in Japan, but that's just about it and he's often not celebrated as much as the other Disney characters outside of Mickey and Friends, I mean Disney would go for characters that are more profitable like 'Frozen.' Plus you need to look at there other pre-school shows on Disney Junior, some shows are just there and Disney doesn't acknowledged them either, heck even Mickey Mouse, there mascot, is on there too and he's more famous than the shows on their and on par with Thomas. Plus Disney had some failings with other brands that they bought like 'Doug' from Nickelodeon and 'Power Rangers' from Saban Brands.
Another company that fans want is Hasbro and TBH, I just see them as another Mattel, although they have a robust TV scheduling, there main goal is to sell toys and that would involve gimmicks, I don't know why these two are the saving graces? If I were to sell Thomas, I sell it to a company that is financially successful but would love to have something like Thomas in their portfolio, like what HIT Entertainment was before they'd purchased Gullane in 2002.
If anyone from Mattel is reading this, I still see the potential in Thomas for the years to come but I can see a rest is in order so the show can be improved to better probably for investors, hopefully that is the idea. But I also hope there is a balance when it comes to the home entertainment side, particulary in the US. Have it on Netflix but also on DVD and TV for those who aren't so lucky to have that luxury of having a streaming platform right in front of them, let alone it would be better to have the latter two if the contract between Mattel and Netflix can't be negoitaged to be extended.
Speaking of Netflix, now that the show isn't being broadcasted on TV over in the US, I see potential of going back to longer episodes and specials again since Netflix doesn't rely on commericals and time limits like Nickelodeon does or PBS. The longer the stories are the more breathing space there is.
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Now since I got that out of the way, I'll give my full thoughts on the current series. Despite the low score compare to last season, I think S24 had shaped up to be the best of the BWBAs era. I like how the fantasy sequences were only used when needed, like Emily thinking about being best friends with Edward, Percy thinking about a railway show, Shankar's worry about being in the spotlight, James thinking he's a superhero etc. they all fit in well with the story without it being forced in to tick boxes. It's almost quite similar to how Michael White used it in his stories in the past two seasons. With the ones that don't it just adds more breathing space to tell the story.
I also think it was nice that Edward and Henry had some time to shine and some dialouge and with it being the 75th anniversary of the Railway Series, it was quite fitting. While it may not be big, and how can it be big when it comes to the characters that, according to the production team, were too hard to write for? But big or small it's good that they weren't forgotten anyway.
While mentioning Emily earlier, I feel that despite her getting two episodes this season I feel that she deserves better, this is one of the problems that I have with her character in general in this era. Her current persona, which is quite similar to the one she had in S7, just makes her plain. I appreciate that the writers and production team are trying something with her but I think her S8 persona gave her more of dynamic when it comes to conflict. 'Emily's Adventure' is a fine example of that with her bossy attitude and how her bossiness can cause trouble to the others. I also think her being arrogant is also good to use when it comes to conflict like in 'Excellent Emily' from S12. Her having flaws and conflict in those episodes did make her interesting.
S24 really felt more improved compare to the past two seasons from this era.
Now that the show is on a hiatus, and I hope that Mattel is reading this, I feel like there can be more improvements to the show, that is if they are doing that. For starters, while Thomas was nice to add as the storyteller, perhaps it's time to move away from that. Sure it had been a tradition for the show to use a narrator since the show's inception with Ringo Starr. But plenty of kids shows have gone forth without a narrator these days and it would allow to tell the story more visually, like what the 2018 special did or how 'A Shed For Edward' was when it first aired without a narrator in the UK back in 2017. Removing the segments of Thomas spicing up the story and then telling us the moral of it all with a recap was fine but there had been a repitition of past episodes from past seasons from time to time and I think maybe it's better to give it a rest as it would also allow to give kids the digestion of what the moral life lesson is after they've seen the episode.
I also think, that whatever they think of during the hiatus for the show's future, is that they should have stories away from the steam team. Yes they are the core characters but for years the show has always been about Thomas and his friends. And that includes the ones like Duck, Donald, Douglas etc. while yes they don't offer much in terms of story, it'll be good to see being added for secondary roles be it them playing a role or as a cameo. It offers more variety of engines on the railway instead of repeating the same old ones that kids are already used too. Because I feel showcasing the steam team engines more and more will get rather tiresome for the young audience. Yeah those character don't resonate with children but I believe kids would want variety as well.
If they decide to reboot the series, I hope they don't turn Thomas into something drastic and foreign looking, that's what happened to 'Bob the Builder'. When the new designs were revealed, people didn't like it at all and I can see why. Unlike Thomas and Fireman Sam, Bob didn't have something that's unique or standout compare to the stop-motion version. The former two had gone CG ever since the late 2000's but they had at least kept something that made them distinctive from before.
Maybe what they can do, if it is a reboot, is to retell the Rev.W.Awdry's stories again. That way young kids can be reintroduced to Thomas and maybe the characters, who I had mentioned earlier, that kids had never resonated too might be a good way to introduce them too. I mean if a reboot is in order, I would rather that more than something like the Bob reboot.
Or maybe Mattel might want to improve Big World into something better, there is a gap with Hiro telling Thomas that he should visit Japan one day, come on I really would love to see something like that. Japan has a huge railway culture that is similar to the UK and I would love to see Thomas being treated like a celebrity, I mean Kenji heard of his globe trotting adventures, so I think the people over there in the series would've heard of it too.
Anyway, those are my wishful thinkings. I do hope we see Thomas again soon and not be left on the side gathering dust.
